How’s the Real Estate Market in Frederick County

The Frederick New Post did an article the other day about the news media and real estate.  It seems they were finally trying to be neutral on their perspective.  I am glad to see they had a broad spectrum of opinions about it. You always have to remember the source when researching information.  Bernie Kohn sums it up at the end.

NAR is simply doing its job to represent real estate agents, Kohn said.

“It’s what you do on behalf of an industry that faces tough times,” Kohn said. “You have to find that little bit of silver lining.”

Our (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yung always has better numbers than someone from a different industry.  His numbers are always more rosey. Why?  He has 1.3 million REALTORS that he has to keep somewhat happy so they stay on board.  Even I read his stats with a grain of salt.

But back to the other statements…

“What’s going on as far as declining housing prices is a reflection of economic fundamentals,” said Steve Pilloff, a Hood College management professor who blogs for The Frederick News-Post. “If the media is being accused of painting a doom-and-gloom picture, that’s a reflection of what’s going on.”

It is not all doom and gloom.  There are people still buying homes.  There are people that want to buy homes but are afraid of the current market.  171 families bought homes in Frederick County in July.  Yes, that is down from last year and the year before, but they did buy.  And they paid less for their home than buyers of previous years.

Part of the problem as I see it, is the media cannot do too many “feel good” stories.  It is all doom and gloom, seriously.  We open the Newspaper or turn on the 6 Oclock news to see who died, who got shot, who was robbed and who was in an accident.   Granted, a story about someone that drove safely from home to work is much less interesting…you get my point and so does Professor Weinberg

“When the economy is humming along and things are going smoothly, that’s not as interesting as when things head south,” Weinberg said. “It creates sad and unfortunate situations, but they are nonetheless interesting stories about the economic conditions.”

I have mentioned it many times here that you have to pay attention to the local market not the national news.   We have our problems, but we also have our victories.  And we had a 171 in July that didn’t make the paper.

Have a great day.

Bob is a licensed Real Estate agent in Maryland and Pennsylvania. You can contact him via email at bob@gotbob4homes.com or call him on his cell phone at 240-285-4918.  Bob left the Frederick area to manage a resort office near Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. He still stays in touch with the area that he has grown to love.